1. Field of the Invention
The devices and processes described herein relate, in general, to data processing system interactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems are systems that manipulate, process, and store data. Personal computer systems, and their associated subsystems, constitute well-known examples of data processing systems.
Data processing systems often provide assistance to humans. Examples of such assistance are automated co-pilots which assist human pilots in flying, automated teller machines which assist humans in banking transactions, paging devices which assist humans in remotely communicating with other humans or machines, and automated medical diagnosis tools which assist human doctors in the practice of medicine.
When a data processing system is used to provide assistance to a human, the data processing system and the human often interact with each other. One way in which the data processing system and the human can interact is by use of a multifunction (or multi-purpose) display (MFD).
An MFD is generally composed of an integrated combination of input and output devices which allow the data processing system to receive information from and transmit information to a human user. Examples of MFD input devices are hardware switches or graphical user interface buttons. Examples of MFD output devices are MFD visual display devices such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) computer screen.
Generally MFDs have their input devices integrated directly into their output devices for use of ease. Common examples of such MFDs are touch-screen displays which transmit information to a human via display and receive information from a human via human touch of virtually invisible switches of a piece with the visual display, light-pen activated displays which transmit information to a human via display and receive information from a human via the human activating virtually invisible light-sensitive switches of a piece with the visual display, or graphical user interfaces displays which transmit information to a human via display and receive information from a human via the human pointing and clicking graphical icons on the display via use a mouse.
When a human is interacting with an MFD, the human will generally enter data by activating “buttons” (“button” is a shorthand notation used herein to denote the regions on the visual display device which a human user can manipulate by means of touching a switch integrated with the display device with a finger, stimulating a switch integrated with the display device with a light pen, or clicking a graphical icon displayed in the display device via user of a mouse pointer) in response to labels presented on the buttons. The buttons serve to allow the data processing system to transmit information to and receive information from the human. The transmission of information by the data processing system is generally achieved via display of textual or iconic labels on the buttons. The reception of information by the data processing system is generally achieved by the human activating the buttons.
Typically, when a data processing system is utilized to provide assistance to a human, the human and data processing system interact through the input and output devices of the MFD in order to accomplish a defined task. One example of the foregoing is use of an automated teller machine MFD by a human to accomplish a banking transaction.
When a human engages in a banking transaction (e.g., determining an account balance and thereafter withdrawing cash from the account) with a human bank teller, the humans interact to engage in a set of operations necessary to complete the transaction. If confusion ensues during the course of the banking transaction, the human engaging in the banking transaction can interact with the human bank teller in order to resolve the confusion and complete the transaction. This is not the case when an automated teller machine MFD is utilized to accomplish a banking transaction.
When a human is interacting with an MFD to accomplish a banking transaction, the same series of operations must be performed as when the human bank teller is present. However, unlike the previous example, there is no human teller present to assist the human engaging in the banking transaction. Accordingly, great care must be taken with respect to how the MFD interacts with the human user such that the risk of confusion of the human user is minimized.
There are, in general, two broad steps associated with designing how the MFD will interact with a human to accomplish a given task (e.g., a banking transaction) such that risks of confusion to the human user are reduced. The first broad step is to clearly define the set of human-machine interactions which need to be achieved in order to accomplish the given task. This defined set of human-machine interactions is generally referred to as the “information hierarchy” associated with the given task, since, in an abstract sense, it will designate how information will be transmitted and received between the data processing system and the human user. The second broad step is to present the information hierarchy to the human user such that the risks of confusion to the human user are substantially minimized.
The information hierarchy is often presented to the human user through a series of displayed pages which present information to and receive information from the human. As used herein, the term “displayed page” refers to a totality of a screen of information presented to the human user through the visual display device. A human-detectable change in the totality of the information presented will be referred to as the presentation of new displayed page. For example, if a label on a button is changed, such change will be referred to herein as the presentation of a new displayed page. An example of a displayed page is a World Wide Web page displayed on a display device.
It is important that the presentation of the information hierarchy is such that a substantial percentage of human users will be able to transmit and receive required task-specific information through the MFD without becoming confused. In order to guard against confusion, care must be taken in how the information hierarchy is mapped to the one or more buttons on the one or more displayed pages presented to the human user. Mapping the information hierarchy to the one or more buttons on the one or more displayed pages in a fashion that decreases the likelihood of confusion is generally considered to be an extremely challenging task within the art.
It is common within the art for human MFD designers to map the information hierarchy to the one or more buttons on the one or more displayed pages on the basis of a balancing of tradeoffs between one or more design criteria identified by the human MFD designers. However, insofar as there exists within the art no substantial tools allowing for the quantification of either the design criteria or quantification of the tradeoffs between the one or more design criteria, the common methodology within the art is for human MFD designers to empirically explore several different mapping options until the whole system “feels” good to human test subjects. As a result, MFD creation largely remains an artistic endeavor, depending primarily on the experience, intuition, and hard work of the human MFD designer.
While MFD design will continue to be, in large part, an artistic endeavor, the inventors named herein (inventors) have discovered that the design skills of the human designer can be enhanced by devices and processes devised by the inventors which allow for automated assignment of button labels across one or more displayed pages in response to input quantitatively specifying design constraints and tradeoffs.